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Personal Finance: Another Perspective

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Title: Personal Finance: Another Perspective


1
Personal Finance Another Perspective
  • Investments 8 Picking Financial Assets

2
Objectives
  • A. Understand why you should wait to pick stocks
    (until your assets have grown substantially)
  • B. Understand where to find important
    information on mutual funds and stocks
  • C. Understand what makes a good mutual fund
  • D. Understand index funds
  • E. Understand taxes on financial assets

3
A. Understand why you shouldnt be picking stocks
until later
  • While we have talked about many things thus far,
    we have not talked about picking stocks. Why?
  • There are five major reasons why we have not
    talked about picking stocks. Picking single
    stocks initially violates the following investing
    principles
  • 1. Principle 3 Stay Diversified
  • Picking single stocks violates the principle of
    diversification, especially when you are just
    beginning to build your portfolio
  • With a small portfolio, it is difficult to
    achieve acceptable diversification with limited
    numbers of stocks

4
Stock Selection Strategies (continued)
  • 2. Principle 4 Invest Low-cost and
    tax-efficiently
  • Investing in stocks when you have a small
    portfolio (less than 500,000) is very expensive.
  • Transactions costs for purchasing stocks are
    among the highest of any major asset class
  • 3. Principle 6 Know What You Invest In
  • Picking stocks when you have not developed the
    knowledge and skill base necessary to evaluate
    stocks is very risky, bordering on speculation or
    gambling
  • Most (and this includes Finance students) have
    not yet developed the skills needed to make good
    stock selection decisions for a portfolio

5
Stock Selection Strategies (continued)
  • 4. Principle 8 Dont spend too much time
    trying to Beat the Market
  • Picking stocks is very difficult and challenging
    task
  • There is so much more to be learned about
    valuation that cant be taught in a single class.
  • I have given only the very basics in this course
  • 5. Stock selection is not required to have a
    successful investment portfolio
  • While it is intellectually challenging to select
    stocks, you can generally improve returns and
    reduce risk more by properly selecting asset
    classes.
  • You may never need to buy an individual stock

6
Stock Selection Strategies (continued)
  • Remember, since analyzing companies is not likely
    going to be many of your daytime jobs, it will be
    in most of your best interests to develop a
    sleep-well portfolio plan and follow it. This
    is done by
  • Writing and following your Investment Plan
  • Maintaining a generally passive strategy for
    stock selection and active strategy for asset
    allocation
  • Enjoying your family and friends
  • Doing well in your day job
  • Making a difference in your families, your
    church, and in the communities where you live

7
Questions
  • Any questions on why you shouldn't be picking
    stocks until later?

8
B. Understand where to find Information on
Mutual Funds
  • Where do you find mutual fund and stock
    information?
  • Stockbrokers
  • Mutual Fund Supermarkets
  • Schwab, Fidelity, TD Waterhouse
  • Mutual Fund Monitoring companies
  • Morningstar, Lipper
  • Financial Websites and the Financial Press
  • Yahoo, MSN Money, CNN Money
  • Kiplingers, Smart Money, AOL Finance
  • BYU Libraries
  • HBLL has great information See TT10

9
Mutual Fund Information (continued)
  • What is the best format for the information?
  • In a database of consistent, pertinent
    information that is updated on a regular basis
  • The database must be directly searchable with a
    consistent framework and structure
  • One example
  • Morningstar
  • Note that this is just one of the many available
    databases. By choosing this database, I am
    neither implying or endorsing Morningstar
    (although I think they are pretty good). It is
    just that it is available free in the library

10
C. Understand How to Pick a Good Mutual Fund
  • What is the process to pick mutual funds?
  • 1. Determine the asset class needed for your
    Plan and choose the appropriate benchmark
  • 2. Determine the key parameters for that asset
    class, i.e., principles, such as costs, fees,
    diversification, etc. to identify potential funds
  • 3. Using a database program, set those
    parameters, and evaluate each of the potential
    candidates
  • 4. Evaluate each candidate and select the best
    funds
  • 5. Purchase the funds (but not in December
    before distributions are made) and monitor
    performance carefully

11
What Makes A Good Mutual Fund?
  • What makes a good mutual fund?
  • 1. Good diversification
  • 2. Low cost
  • 3. Tax efficiency
  • 4. Low turnover
  • 5. Low un-invested Cash
  • 6. No manager style drift
  • 7. Small (or positive) tracking error
  • Please note that these slides refer to
    Morningstar Pages for specific funds. The first
    title is the Morningstar Button. The second is
    the tab (separated by a colon if available), and
    the third is the heading (separated by a dash).
    For example, Portfolio Portfolio Market
    Capitalization, refers to the Market
    Capitalization heading from the Portfolio tab of
    the Portfolio button

12
1. Good Diversification
  • Diversification is your key defense against
    market risk
  • Stay diversified at all times. Pick a fund with
    many companies in their portfolios within your
    asset class
  • Diversification your primary defense against
    things that might go wrong in investing
  • Remember where you are in the hourglass.
  • Avoid sector (industry) funds, individual stocks
    or concentrated portfolios of any kind until you
    have sufficient education, experience, and assets
  • And even then, keep that percentage of these
    assets small in relation to your overall assets

13
Where do you find Diversification?
  • Diversification by
  • Numbers (Portfolio Holdings)
  • Total Number of Stock, Bond, and Other Holdings
  • Concentration Assets in top 10 holdings
  • Type (Portfolio Summary)
  • Type of holdings (stocks, bonds, cash)
  • Location (Portfolio Summary)
  • World Regions Location of companies invested in
    by geographic area
  • Sector Weightings (Portfolio Summary)
  • Sector (or industry) weightings

14
Good Diversification
15
2. Low Cost
  • Invest low cost
  • In a world where investment returns are limited,
    investment costs of all kinds reduce your return
  • Invest in no-load mutual funds
  • You should rarely (if ever) pay a sales load of
    any kind (front end, level load, 12-b1, etc.).
  • Rear-end loads are OK, since you are long-term
    investor, as long as the loads are less than 180
    days
  • Keep management fees to the lowest possible
    within the sector
  • Remember A dollar saved is a dollar you can
    earn more money with

16
Where do you find costs?
  • Costs (Expense)
  • Expense Relative to Category
  • This is a key ratio Total Expense Ratio
  • Compare that to your category average
  • Maximum Sales Fees (or Loads)
  • Initial
  • Deferred
  • Redemption
  • Other Fees/Expenses
  • Administrative costs
  • Management fees
  • 12b-1 Fees

17
Low Cost (Fees and Expenses)

18
3. Tax Efficiency
  • Invest in taxable funds with an eye to obtaining
    high returns while keeping taxes low
  • Taxes reduce the amount of money you can use for
    your personal and family goals
  • Watch the historical impact of taxes, for it will
    likely continue
  • Remember It is not what you earn, but what you
    keep after taxes that makes you wealthy

19
Where do you find Tax Efficiency?
  • Tax analysis
  • Pretax Return Return before taxes
  • Tax-adjusted Return Return after taxes
  • Tax Cost Ratio The percent of nominal Fund
    return attributable to taxes, assuming the fund
    is taxed at the highest rate. If a fund had an
    8.0 return, and the tax cost ratio was 2.0, the
    fund took home (1 return) (1 tax cost
    ratio) -1 or (1.08.98)-1 or 5.84
  • Potential Cap Gains Exposure An estimate of the
    percent of a funds assets that represent gains.
    If this is high, the probability is high that
    these may come to the investor as capital gains

20
Tax Efficient
21
4. Low Turnover
  • Keep turnover low, as its a proxy for fund
    expenses and taxes
  • The costs associated with turnover are hard to
    quantify and may not be disclosed in the
    prospectus. These costs include commissions,
    bid-ask spreads, and market impact
  • Each transaction generates a taxable event for
    you, and these cumulative costs can be very
    expensive.
  • Stick to funds with the low turnover (and low
    management fees), as they generally have lower
    costs and are more tax efficient as well

22
Where do you find Turnover?
  • Turnover
  • Annual Turnover (Portfolio Holdings, Quote)
  • This is the Fund turnover
  • Category Average Turnover (Portfolio Holdings)
  • This is the turnover of Funds in the same asset
    class or category

23
Low Turnover
24
5. Low Un-invested Cash
  • High cash levels are drags on performance. Keep
    un-invested cash low
  • Many funds hold cash to fund potential
    redemptions, or as part of their investment
    policy, which are drags on performance
  • Choose funds that are fully invested (95-99
    depending on the asset class and fund size) in
    the market segment that you are targeting
  • Do not pay others to manage cash
  • Please note that some frictional cash is OK
    though for open-end mutual funds

25
Where do you find Un-invested Cash?
  • Un-invested Cash (or cash drag)
  • Percent of cash in the fund (Snapshot - Asset
    Allocation)

26
Un-invested Cash
27
6. Manager Style Drift
  • Make sure the managers investment style remains
    constant
  • Investment fund managers have no authority to
    change the asset class
  • If you purchase a small cap fund, you don't want
    the manager to purchase international shares
  • The fund's prospectus should clearly define the
    market, size company, and style tilt for the
    portfolio.
  • If you are looking for a domestic small value
    fund, screen for funds with the all of their
    assets invested in the U.S., the smallest average
    company size, and the highest book-to-market (or
    lowest price-book) ratios

28
Where do you find Manager Style drift?
  • Managers Style
  • Managers Style Box (Portfolio Summary)
  • The style box should not change over time

29
No Style Drift
30
7. Low (or positive) Tracking Error
  • Tracking error should be small
  • Tracking error is the historical difference
    between the return of a fund (i.e. a mutual fund)
    and its specific market/sector benchmark or
    index.
  • The smaller the tracking error, the better the
    performance of the Index fund relative to the
    benchmark
  • However, you wont complain if the tracking error
    is positive (i.e., your fund had higher returns
    than the index or benchmark)

31
Where do you find Tracking Error?
  • Tracking Error (Performance Growth of 10k)
  • Returns. Fund annual returns
  • /- SP 500 TR. This is tracking error versus
    the SP 500 Index (/- Index). Note that
    Morningstars choice of index is sometimes very
    poor, i.e., using MSCI EAFE for emerging markets
  • /- Category. Tracking Error versus the
    Category. In this case it is large cap blend.
    This is a better check on performanceversus all
    funds in a similar category
  • Rank in Category (Number is in top --the lower
    the number the better)

32
Tracking Error
33
Mutual Fund Information (continued)
  • Lets look up some information
  • www.byu.edu
  • See Teaching Tool 7 Using Morningstar to Select
    Mutual Funds (using the HBL Library or the
    Internet)

34
Questions
  • Any questions on what makes a good mutual fund?
  • Websites to review
  • www.morningstar.com
  • www.Indexfunds.com
  • www.cnnmoney.com
  • http//finance.yahoo.com
  • www.fool.com

35
D. Understand Index Funds
  • What are index funds?
  • Mutual funds or ETFs which hold specific shares
    in proportion to those held by an index
  • Their goal is to match the benchmark performance
  • Why have they come about?
  • Investors are concerned that most actively
    managed funds have not been able to beat their
    benchmarks after all fees, taxes and costs.
  • So instead of trying to beat an index, investors
    accept the index return and risk.
  • Interestingly, index funds have tended to
    outperform most actively managed funds

36
Index Funds (continued)
  • Why the big deal about index funds?
  • Index funds have become the standard against
    which other mutual funds are judged
  • If an actively managed mutual fund cannot perform
    better (after taxes and fees) than an index fund
    (index funds are very tax efficient), then
    investors should invest in index funds
  • There are nearly 869 different index fund and
    1,438 exchange traded funds (ETFs) which follow
    different geographical, maturity, capitalization,
    and style indices (Morningstar as of 5/23/2011)

37
Index Funds (continued)
  • Why have index funds and ETFs grown so quickly?
  • There is no correlation between last years
    winners and this years winners for actively
    managed funds
  • Actively managed funds tend to reduce performance
    through excessive trading, which also generates
    taxes for the investor
  • Actively managed funds generally have higher
    management fees which must be overcome through
    higher returns (18 basis points for an index fund
    versus 80-250 basis points for an actively
    managed fund)
  • It is very difficult to beat these funds on a
    consistent basis after all fees and taxes

38
Index Funds (continued)
  • How have most equity investors done?
  • Each year, DALBAR puts out an annual book on
    Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior. It
    discusses how average equity fund investors have
    done versus the benchmark over the past 20 years.
  • Investor
    Index
  • Year Period Returns Returns
    Difference
  • 2006 1986-2005 3.9 11.9 -8.0
  • 2007 1987-2006 4.3 11.8 -7.5
  • 2008 1988-2007 4.5 11.8 -7.3
  • 2009 1989-2008 1.9 8.4 -6.5
  • 2010 1990-2009 3.2 8.2 -5.0
  • 2011 1991-2010 3.8 9.1 -5.3
  • Dalbar 2005- 2009

39
Index Funds (continued)
  • How have most bond investors done?
  • DALBAR points out that bond investors have done
    equally poorly versus the bond benchmark over the
    past 20 years.
  • Investor
    Index
  • Year Period Returns Returns
    Difference
  • 2006 1986-2005 1.8 9.7 -8.1
  • 2007 1987-2006 1.7 8.6 -6.9
  • 2008 1988-2007 1.6 8.0 -6.4
  • 2009 1989-2008 0.8 7.4 -6.6
  • 2010 1990-2009 1.0 7.0 -6.0
  • 2011 1991-2010 1.0 6.9 -5.9
  • Dalbar QAIB 2007- 2011, www.dalbar.com,
    Estimate, not given in report

40
Index Funds (continued)
  • Jason Zweig, a senior writer for Money Magazine
    commented
  • With an index fund, you're on permanent
    auto-pilot you will always get what the market
    is willing to give, no more and no less. By
    enabling me to say "I don't know, and I don't
    care," my index fund has liberated me from the
    feeling that I need to forecast what the market
    is about to do. That gives me more time and
    mental energy for the important things in life,
    like playing with my kids and working in my
    garden (Jason Zweig, Indexing Lets You Say
    Those Magic Words, CNN Money, August 29, 2001).

41
Index Funds (continued)
  • Warren Buffet commented
  • By periodically investing in an index fund, the
    know-nothing investor can actually outperform
    most investment professionals. Paradoxically,
    when 'dumb' money acknowledges its limitations,
    it ceases to be dumb (Warren Buffett, Letter to
    Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders, 1993).

42
Insights on Indexing?
  • 1. Most actively managed funds and brokerage
    accounts will generally under-perform index funds
    in the long run after all taxes, costs and fees
  • 2. The competition in stock-market research is
    intense and will get more competitive going
    forward, making markets more efficient and
    indexing even more attractive
  • 3. Market indexing or passive investing is a
    free-ride on the competition and it takes very
    little time
  • Suggestion For broader diversification, choose
    an index fund that has more members or a total
    market index fund

43
Indexing and Mutual Funds?
  • Reasons to not index
  • Passive investing is boring
  • Picking stocks can be intellectually challenging
  • Investment war stories are fun to share with
    friends
  • Doing nothing about your investments is unnerving
  • Reasons to index
  • Immediate diversification
  • Superior long-run performance
  • Tax efficient
  • Takes very little time

44
Questions?
  • Any questions on indexing and why it is important?

45
E. Understand Taxes on Financial Assets
  • All investment earnings are not created equal.
    There are different taxes and tax rates on
    different types of financial assets. Some have
    preferential federal, and others preferential
    state tax rates
  • Taxes fall under three main headings a. Stocks,
    b. Bonds and savings vehicles, and c. Mutual
    funds (which include index funds and exchange
    traded funds)
  • Note that each of these assets are taxed at the
    federal level and may be taxed at the state and
    local level as well, depending on your state of
    residence.
  • Many are taxed at your marginal tax rate (MTR),
    which is your highest tax rate, the tax on each
    additional dollar of income

46
Taxes on Financial Assets (continued)
  • A. Stocks (or Equities)
  • There are two main types of taxes on stocks
    capital gains taxes and taxes on dividends
  • 1. Capital gains are realized earnings from
    selling a stock. They are divided into
    short-term and long-term
  • Short-term capital gains are gains from the sale
    of a stock where the stock was held for one year
    or less. It is taxed at your marginal tax rate
  • Long-term capital gains are gains on the sale of
    stock where the stock is held for more than one
    year. It is taxed at a preferential federal rate

47
Taxes on Financial Assets (continued)
  • 2. Stock dividends
  • Stock dividends are of two types, qualified or
    ordinary/not qualified
  • A qualified dividend is a dividend paid by a U.S.
    corporation where the investor held the stock for
    more than 60 days during the 121-day period that
    begins 60 days before the ex-dividend date (see
    Teaching Tool 32)
  • An ordinary dividend is a dividend that is not
    qualified, i.e., you have not held the stock for
    a long enough time period to get the Federal
    preferential tax rate

48
Taxes on Financial Assets (continued)
  • B. Bonds and Savings Vehicles
  • Bond taxes are mainly two types capital gains
    taxes and taxes on interest/coupon payments
  • 1. Capital gains include both short-term and
    long-term capital gains, and are the gains
    received from the realized sale of the bonds that
    are related to price appreciation
  • 2. Interest/coupon payments are payments
    received as part of the contractual agreement to
    receive interest payments
  • Bonds which have preferential interest tax
    treatment, i.e., munis and Treasuries, must
    still pay capital gains taxes

49
Taxes on Financial Assets (continued)
  • C. Mutual Funds
  • Mutual funds are pass through vehicles, which
    means that taxes are not paid at the Fund level
    but are passed through to the individual
    shareholders who must pay the taxes.
  • Mutual fund taxes are mainly capital gains, stock
    dividends and interest/coupon payments. They are
    handled the exact same way as the taxes for
    stocks and bonds discussed earlier

50
Taxes on Financial Assets
51
Taxes on Financial Assets (continued)
  • Summary Definitions and Notes on Taxes
  • 1. Short-term capital gains are gains where
    shares/bonds that were sold were held for one
    year or less
  • 2. Long-term capital gains are gains where
    shares/bonds that were sold were held more than
    one year
  • 3. If your marginal tax rate (MTR) is 25 or
    higher, long-term capital gains and qualified
    stock dividends are taxed at 15. If your MTR
    is less than 25, long-term capital gains and
    qualified stock dividends are taxed at 0 for
    2012
  • 4. State tax rates vary state to state, while
    some states do not have a state income tax
  • 5. Qualified dividends are dividends which are
    paid by a U.S. corporation and you held the stock
    for more than 60 days during the 121-day period
    that begins 60 days before the ex-dividend date
    (see the Qualified Dividends tab on TT32 to see
    if your dividends qualify for the lower rate)

52
Questions
  • Any questions on taxes on financial assets?

53
Review of Objectives
  • A. Do you understand where to find important
    information on mutual funds?
  • B. Do you understand what makes a good mutual
    fund?
  • C. Do you understand index funds and why they
    are attractive investment assets?
  • D. Do you understand why you shouldnt be
    picking stocks until the deepen phase when your
    assets and experience have grown?
  • E. Do you understand taxes on financial assets?

54
Case Study 1
  • Data
  • Bill is concerned that he can only invest 50 per
    month to invest and he already has his Emergency
    Fund. He would like to find an index fund that
    follows the large capitalization stocks, with his
    chosen benchmark being the SP 500 Index. He has
    determined his criteria as large capitalization
    stocks, index funds, minimum purchase of 50,
    asset size gt 750 million, a no load fund, with
    fees and expenses lt.15.
  • Application
  • Using Morningstar library or internet edition,
    how many funds meet Bills criteria, and which
    would you choose?

55
Case Study 1 Answers
  • Go to Morningstar Library Edition Online, and go
    to the screeners (see Teaching Tool 7). Set up
    the problem with the following criteria
  • Fund Category Domestic Stock (ex-specialty),
    and your category is Large Blend
  • Special Fund Types, and Index Fund Yes
  • Minimum Purchase, MIP lt a Value, 50
  • Fund Size (Total Assets), FS gt Value, 750
  • Fees and Expenses, No-Load Funds Yes
  • Fees and Expenses, Expense Ratio lt Value, .15

56
Case Study 1 Answers
  • As of 3/5/2012, there were 5 funds that passed
    your criteria. They were
  • DFA U.S. Large Company Index I (dfusx)
  • Type SP 500 Index, Expense ratio .10
  • Min. Investment 0, 0 initial AIP
  • Fidelity Spartan Total Market Index (ffsmx)
  • Type SP 500 Index, Expense ratio .07
  • Min. Investment 0, 0 initial AIP
  • Vanguard 500 Index Signal (vifsx)
  • Type SP 500 Index, Expense ratio .06
  • Min. Investment 0, 0 initial AIP

57
Case Study 1 Answers
  • Vanguard Large Cap Index Signal (vlcsx)
  • Type SP 500 Index, Expense ratio .12
  • Min. Investment 0, 0 initial AIP
  • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Signal (vtssx)
  • Type SP 500 Index, Expense ratio .06
  • Min. Investment 0, 0 initial AIP

58
Case Study 1 Answers
  • Which fund you choose will be determined by the
    factors you consider are most important.
  • Please note, that after you do the analysis in
    Morningstar, you need to call each of the fund
    families to make sure the information was
    correct.
  • Toll-free numbers are available under the tab
    Purchase and you should call them before
    investing.
  • None of the funds on this list are available for
    retail investorsthey all are for institutional.
    Be aware of this when you invest.

59
Morningstar Fund Report I
60
Morningstar Fund Report II
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